"After Windows XP is launched in October, users will be directed to download
a plug-in from Microsoft’s Web site (www.microsoft.com) to make Java-based
programs work. Without this step, “any Web page that contains Java applications
will not run — it will be a dead page,” said Jan Vitek, a professor of computer
science at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind. “This favors Microsoft’s
new technologies, and will inconvenience consumers,” he said.

For Web-based businesses, Mr. Vitek added, “if you want your Web page accessible
to the largest number of people, you may want to drop Java” and switch to
Microsoft’s competing set of products, which is under development and is
known as .Net."